PhD Studentship: Floral Materials and Objects from the 2nd Millennium BCE East Mediterranean

The acronym ODYSSEIA stands for: Organic Data Yields in Aegean Bronze Age material culture. Scientific, Sensory, Ethnographic, Experimental, and Iconographic Approaches to human-environment interactions through crafting. In this project, we aim to revise our understanding of how Aegean people in the 2nd millennium BCE related to their physical environment. For this, we will investigate the socio-economic roles of their organic materials in a world known for its elite conspicuous consumption of durable materials and richly decorated palaces. We will achieve this via a multidisciplinary survey of a wide range of organic materials and objects of faunal and floral origins. In order to reconstruct the workflows of how these organic objects have been produced but also used, our holistic and novel methodology combines Aegean and Egyptian iconography, Bronze Age and later texts, ethnographic and experimental studies, 3D modelling, and scientific analyses of archaeological remains. Based on the workflows and how these intersect, their labour cost rates will be calculated. These calculations, based on optimal socio-economic work patterns, and on pre-industrial agricultural subsistence activities, will redress the socio-economic and political imbalances in the power between elites and others in the 2nd millennium BCE. It will complement existing labour data on Late Bronze Age Aegean inorganic workflows. These new data will render visible both organics and a fuller range of Bronze Age people interacting with them, and it will result in a comprehensive, gendered taskscape narrative.

Key tasks and responsibilities

As a member of a larger team, the advertised PhD position is embedded within the ODYSSEIA programme, funded by an FWO ODYSSEUS Type I Grant, and supervised by Prof. Dr. Ann Brysbaert. As PhD candidate, you carry out research in the framework of this project and according to a set of tasks linked to this project. You will also follow the Faculty of Arts PhD training programme, see https://www.arts.kuleuven.be/english/research/becoming-researcher/phd/steps . The Faculty of Arts is a large vibrant research community of PhD students and postdoctoral researchers from all corners of the world and often come together in social and professional activities which are open to all.

This PhD project will document and analyse floral materials and objects, especially woven materials: e.g. textiles, baskets, sacks, and mats from a range of different sources of data groups and via different methodologies, and from the raw materials to the finished/reused objects. Objects made of these materials are known from BA Aegean and Egyptian iconographic data from the second millennium East Mediterranean. Archaeobotanical studies and approaches are crucial. Linear A & B, and contemporary Egyptian texts on materials and professions will be collected and analysed both through studying the literature on these sources and analysing the archaeological remains via microscopy and other methods deemed necessary. The cross-cultural Egyptian data will illustrate various technological aspects of production processes where Aegean data are lacking. Papers on floral-based objects have been published for the Aegean, but certain categories are very limited, so emphasis lies on recording and analysing the extant archaeological material where available. Literature on ethnographic and cross-cultural textiles studies will shed new light on their chaînes opératoires and non-elite uses. The Leiden Textile Research Centre will form a role in the PhD training on textiles and related materials. The expected deliveries will be: 2 joint conference papers, 1 Handbook chapter, the PhD manuscript or its equivalent in co-published papers, Open Access database.

You will carry out the following:

1. Write a PhD
2. Take part in PhD training offered by the Faculty of Arts and through external field schools where appropriate and needed, e.g. the Leiden Textile Research Centre
3. Participate in meetings-workshops organised by the ODYSSEIA team to share and discuss data among the group members and the PI towards the common goals.
4. Present papers at inter/national conferences and workshops, together with other team members and collaborators, as required by the project (co-authored and individual)
5. Submit research results for publication, together with other team members and collaborators, in peer-reviewed journals, synthetic publications, and conference proceedings (co-authored and individual)
6. Undertake/participate in limited teaching in year (1), 2, 3 of the appointment (practicals, classes, exam invigilation, field school, etc.), and minor project administration tasks, as is the case for all PhD students at KU Leuven.

1. We offer a full-time position as a doctoral scholar for 1,0 fte (38 hours per week), the start date falls between Sept 1 and Dec 1, 2026
2. The appointment as a PhD scholar will be initially for a period of one year with an extension of three years after positive evaluation of progress and skills development.
3. Information on your salary: the net amount of a doctoral scholarship is 100% of the salary of an Assistant (barema 43) with the same qualification, age and family situation, see https://admin.kuleuven.be/personeel/wedde/wedde_AP.html. This is the fiscally allowed maximum amount. See: https://admin.kuleuven.be/personeel/intranet/statuten/doctoraatsbursaal/index.html
4. You are legally required to live in Belgium
5. We offer a stimulating and lively environment of PhDs and Postdoctoral researchers in archaeology and well beyond